Destiny 2: How to Complete the Memories of Loss Rune Patterns Puzzle

As you go through the Destiny 2‘s The Witch Queen campaign, you’ll reach the Memories of Loss quest, which takes you deep into the bowels of the Throne World. You’ll eventually get to a remote, blue-lit location beyond a portal, and you’re asked to solve a puzzle to progress. This is the Rune Patterns puzzle, which you’ll not only need to complete to continue the story.

However, you’ll also need to solve it again as part of a Powerful Reward activity once you finish the campaign. So it’s best to know what to do. 

Memories of Loss Rune Pattern Puzzle Solution

The puzzle is much simpler than it initially seems. There are two steps:

1. Shoot the three out-of-place runes on the wall in the central area.
2. Do the same with the runes on the sides of the raised platforms on either side of the room. 

Step 1: Picking Out the First Set of Rune Columns

When you first enter the chamber with the Rune Pattern puzzle, you’ll be presented with a half-wall covered in columns of Hive Runes. Look for the three columns with mismatched rune patterns.

Every column of runes, in this step and the next, will be the same except for three. Shoot or melee the three sets of runes that don’t match. Doing so successfully will make a large rune of energy appear above the half-wall. Succeeding three times progresses the puzzle.

If you shoot the wrong runes, the whole process will reset. None of the runes change location or order — you only need to remember which ones don’t match.

Step 2: Picking the Second Set of Rune Columns 

For the second part of the puzzle, 18 rune columns will appear across six raised platforms on either side of the room. There are three rune columns per platform; out of those 18, three will be out-of-place.

The challenge here is remembering the “correct” order of runes, but thankfully, the remaining 15 columns will all be the same. Some platforms won’t have any “incorrect” runes, so you can leave those alone.

The out-of-place runes might be all on one side or mixed between both. As before, shooting the wrong symbols will reset the puzzle, and you’ll need to start again. Hitting the correct one will cause a larger energy rune to appear above the platform.

Once you’ve successfully activated all three rune columns, the door at the back of the room will open, allowing you to progress toward the end of the mission.

That’s how you solve the Memories of Loss Rune Pattern puzzle during the Destiny 2: The Witch Queen expansion campaign. It’s a simple memory-matching game, and it’s straightforward once you get the hang of it. Check out our other Destiny 2 guides, including how to complete the weapon crafting tutorial quest Foundry Resonance, our Vow of the Disciple Raid guide, and our Dares of Eternity walkthrough. Our guides hub has much more.